Research Article
A Comparative Analysis of The Lonely Londoners and Wide Sargasso Sea within the Context of Multiculturalism
Abstract
The author Jean Rhys explored the concept of multiculturalism in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (WSS) (1966), which presented a narrative of the protagonist’s life in Jamaica and England. In contrast, Samuel Selvon depicted Caribbean immigrants’ lives in England by integrating multicultural items into his novel, The Lonely Londoners (TLL) (1956). This study addresses the theme of multiculturalism in both WSS and TLL and reflects on the lifestyles and relationships of the characters within the context of multiculturalism in the Caribbean and England. To achieve this goal, a detailed analysis was conducted using a multiculturalist approach, grounded in selected examples extracted from both WSS and TLL. Both works of literature analyzed the influence of the dominant culture on an individuals’ cultural facets, highlighting their ability or inability to adapt to the constraints of the host culture. In her work, Rhys highlighted the adaptation process and the discrimination experienced by white and black Creoles. Conversely, Selvon’s narrative focused on class-based discrimination within a culture with undefined or shifting boundaries. This article provides an analysis of how the literary works reflect the difficulties faced by an individual when living in heterogeneous cultures, specifically cultural integration and discrimination. First, the definition of terms and a theoretical and literary framework are presented, then, a comparative analysis with selected examples from WSS and TLL is given in the study. Finally, the article argues that both works offer valuable insights into the struggles that individuals and communities in multicultural societies face as they negotiate the conflicts between cultural diversity and social cohesion.
References
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Year 2023,
Volume: 33 Issue: 2, 373 - 393, 25.12.2023
Abstract
References
- Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), pp. 5-34. google scholar
- Bhabha, H. K. (2003). Signs taken for Wonders. B. Ashcroft, & G. Griffiths, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader , pp. 2935. London and New York: Routledge. google scholar
- Blum, L. A. (1992). Antiracism, Multiculturalism, and Interracial Community: Three Educational Values for a Multicultural Society. Boston: University of Massachusetts. google scholar
- Deepa, H. & Tyagi, P. (2021). Identity Crisis in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. The Creative Launcher, 6(4), pp. 193-197. doi:10.53032/tcl.2021.6.4.29 google scholar
- Dovidio, J. F., Hewstone, M., Glick, P., & Esses, V. M. (2010). Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: Theoretical and empirical overview. J. F. Dovidio, M. Hewstone, P. Glick, & V. M. Esses (Dü) (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination, pp. 3-28. SAGE Publications. google scholar
- Drake, S. (1999). Race and Caribbean Culture as Thematics of Liberation in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. J. L. Raiskin, A Norton Critical Edition: WSS (pp. 193-206). Norton. google scholar
- Gozdecka, D. A., Ercan, S. A., & Kmak, M. (2014). From multiculturalism to post-multiculturalism: Trends and paradoxes. Journal of Sociology, 50(1), pp. 51-64. doi:10.1177/1440783314522191 google scholar
- Kadhim, N. J. (2011). Double exile: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Journal of College Of Education for Women, 22(3), pp. 589-605. google scholar
- Kim, B. S., & Abreu, J. M. (2001). Acculturation measurement: Theory, current instruments, and future directions. J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander, Handbook of multicultural counseling, pp. 394424. SAGE Publications. google scholar
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- Miller, A. M., Sorokin, O., Wang, E., Feetham, S., Choi, M., & Wilbur, J. (2006). Acculturation, social alienation, and depressed mood in midlife women from the former soviet union. Research in Nursing & Health, 29(2), pp. 134-146. doi:10.1002/nur.20125 google scholar
- Modood, T. (2013). Multiculturalism: A civic idea. Cambridge: Polity. google scholar
- Nortio, E., Niska, M., Renvik, T. A., & Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2020). ‘The nightmare of multiculturalism’: Interpreting and deploying anti-immigration rhetoric in social media. News&Media, 23(3), pp. 438-456. doi:10.1177/1461444819899624 google scholar
- Rhys, J. (2001). Wide Sargasso Sea. Penguin Books. google scholar
- Savory, E. (2009). Jean Rhys. Cambridge: Cambridge Universtiy Press. google scholar
- Schwartz, S. J., Unger, J. B., Zamboanga, B. L., & Szapocznik, J. (2010). Rethinking the concept of acculturation: Implications for theory and research. American Psychologist, 65(4), pp. 237-251. doi:10.1037/a0019330 google scholar
- Selvon, S. (2006). The Lonely Londoners. Penguin Books. google scholar
- Song, S. (2009). The Subject of Multiculturalism: Culture, Religion, Language, Ethnicity, Nationality, and Race? B. De Bruin, & C. Zurn, New Waves in Political Philosophy, pp. 177-197. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. google scholar
- ----. (2020). Multiculturalism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.). The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved from: https:// plato.stanford.edu: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiculturalism/ google scholar
- Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiculturalism/ google scholar
- Şenduran, E. D. (2021). Multiculturalism in Jean Rhys’s WSS and E. M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread. OGU Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 22(1), pp. 11-30. doi:10.17494/ogusbd. google scholar
- Şentürk, S. (2020). The Representation Of Caribbean Immigration In Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956). SDU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences(50), pp. 125-130. google scholar
- Thomas, S. (1994). Difference, Intersubjectivity, and Agency in the Colonial and Decolonizing Spaces of Helene Cixous’s “Sorties”. Hypatia, 1, pp. 53-69. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1994.tb00109.x google scholar
There are 23 citations in total.
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Creative Arts and Writing |
| Journal Section | Research Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | December 25, 2023 |
| Submission Date | May 16, 2023 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2023 Volume: 33 Issue: 2 |
